The Deir Yassin Remembered Blog

Report on Beth Israel vigil 08-21-10

Posted on August 28th, 2010 at 8:23 am by Henry Herskovitz

JWPF Members Learn a Valuable Lesson

University of Michigan football fans may remember last November 21 as day of the sixth defeat in a row by the Ohio State Buckeyes, but we remember that day because Vigiller G was assaulted by suspect David A. Fauman of Ann Arbor. The lesson we learned is to always face potential assailants head-on, if only for later identification purposes. It was our combined failure to positively identify Fauman that led First Assistant Prosecutor Konrad Siller to conclude that he could not “prove identity beyond a reasonable doubt” (source: FOIA report requested by JWPF). Fauman works at the University of Michigan as “Information Resources Assistant Senior”, according to www.umich.edu.

Fauman wears distinctive clothing as he walks to either the Chabad House, an orthodox Jewish synagogue, or the Hillel Foundation, a Jewish political/cultural group, both on UM’s campus. Fauman sports a black fedora, almost like a cowboy hat, and a long “Marlboro Man” brown coat. His identity, therefore, was centered in his garb, not his facial features. Note to all protestors: focus on the face, height, weight, etc. Don’t rely on your assailant’s clothing or vehicle as your only source of identification.

However, there is an up-side to distinctive clothing. Two months after the assault, Vigiler S and I were driving on the east side of Ann Arbor, when we spotted the cowboy hat and Marlboro-man coat. Ascertaining an address was as easy as following Fauman to his door, albeit at a safe distance. Having completed our junior sleuthing, we informed the Ann Arbor Police Department (AAPD), who did a reverse address lookup to provide Fauman’s name.

Fauman’s M.O. was to walk past the early-arriving vigilers, and harass us with claims of “Atta boy, people, kill those Jews; throw them into the sea”. On first encounter, I offered my hand, identified myself and asked him his name. Fauman did not identify himself, and would always keep shouting and walking.

Our mistake was ignoring him in subsequent passes down Washtenaw Avenue. On the day of the attack, both Vigiller G and myself were busying ourselves with set-up chores, and had our backs turned. My first awareness of the assault was when G yelled in anger and pain. “Did he hit you?” I asked, and she replied “Yes”. I shouted at Fauman to never raise his hand to us, and we filed a complaint with the AAPD around noon.

Kudos go to Detective A. of the AAPD for the excellent follow up work she compiled. This included a first (and only) meeting with Fauman, who exclaimed “I refuse to speak without the presence of my attorney”. And on April 17, 2010 Detective A. received a letter from Michael J. Vincent, of the law firm of Vincent and Fifelski, P.C., “requesting that you do no interview or talk to my client unless I am present.”

As we reported two weeks ago, “JWPF will not countenance physical attacks on individuals; every assault will be reported to the authorities and prosecuted. We welcome sidewalk conversations, even slightly heated ones. But those pedestrians and motorists who cross the line from verbal to physical should be advised that we will protect ourselves and our right to free speech.”

Business is Business

The owner of a downtown sandwich shop was asked to support the International Day of Quds, by allowing a small poster be placed in the window. Kindly refusing to do so, the owner explained that “Business is business”, and their policy is to refrain from posting political announcements.

Yes, business is business, and no one does business like Jewish Zionists as they complete their ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In spite of this man’s reluctance to join the fray, we remind readers to attend the Al Quds Day rally and speeches in Dearborn, Michigan next Friday, September 3rd at City Hall, 2:30 PM. See you there!

Seven Vigillers
Anti-Zionism means No Jewish State
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

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Report on Beth Israel vigil 08-14-10

Posted on August 21st, 2010 at 4:28 pm by Henry Herskovitz

JWPF Supports Al Quds Day

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends have joined with the National Lawyers Guild, Arab Student Union (U. of Michigan), Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (U. of Michigan and Michigan State Univ.) and others as official supporters of The International Day of Quds. Our friends from The Jerusalem Committee (Dearborn, MI) have organized this local event as part of the international effort. Attendees will hear speeches by Sr. Fatima Mohammadi (Gaza Flotilla survivor) and Br. Dawud Walid (CAIR – Michigan). Dearborn City Hall, September 3, 2010 at 2:30 PM. See flyer here.

“Al-Quds is the Arabic name for the holy city of Jerusalem. Al-Quds Day is a day of solidarity with Palestinians living under military occupation by, or as second-class citizens in, Israel. It also extends beyond Palestine to support all oppressed people in their struggles around the world. All over the world rallies and marches are held on Al-Quds Day, the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in order to pledge solidarity with those seeking peace through justice.” [source: action alert from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs]

Presentation at St. Joseph Parish

Parishioner Jon Heffelfinger showed an excellent, home-made video of Michigan Peace Team’s trip to the West Bank in 2005 to an attentive audience in Dexter, Michigan last Wednesday. Jon is a professional videographer, and his skills as a peace activist and video producer were evident. He was followed by my Harvard Graphics* presentation, which provided an answer to the overarching question “Why?”. Why did Jon show us photos of a wall? Why was a woman and her small children ordered off a bus? Why was our friend Basem Abu Rahme murdered by soldiers of the Jewish State? Why are armed, Jewish settlers walking the lands of Qawawis?

The nutshell answer, of course, is that all these travesties and atrocities are being committed because international Jews want the land, and want the indigenous peoples thrown (and kept) off that land.

* Harvard Graphics is the non-Israeli option to Power Point. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, at the inauguration of a new research center in Apartheid Israel, said “Microsoft is as much an Israeli company as an American company.”

New Sign for the Vigils

JWPF notes that our regularly scheduled Saturday vigil on September 18th coincides with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, aka the Day of Atonement. In addition to our normal display of signs, we will feature the new one, which will advise Beth Israel congregants to”Atone For the Sin of Supporting Genocide”.

UMS Remains in Violation of Palestinian Call to Boycott

The University Musical Society plans to violate PACBI’s call to boycott Apartheid Israel by hosting The Jerusalem Quartet on October 21. Musicians in this racist group are also members of the Israeli Occupation Forces. As the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign writes:

“The members of this Quartet are ’cultural ambassadors’ for Israel and the Israeli army. The Israeli Press Service says: ’For the three immigrants [3 of the Quartet came from Russia ], carrying a rifle in one hand and a violin in the other is the ultimate Zionist statement’. Their record label hypes their status within the army: ’They now enjoy the status of Distinguished IDF, playing for troops thrice weekly when the JQ is in Israel . ’”

Hopefully, one of the groups supporting the International Day of Quds will organize a protest in Ann Arbor. JWPF looks forward to again joining in.

Seven Vigillers
US citizens are killed because Jews want the land
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

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Religious freedom

Posted on August 17th, 2010 at 1:51 am by Steve Beikirch

This “Ground Zero Mosque” non-issue is reaching a fevered pitch. Who knows how it will play out. One thing is for certain. Republican and some Democrat politicians are using the controversy just to get reelected. This in itself is a pretty sad indictment for this country.

The funny thing about all the protest is that it is based on sheer stupidity. Apparently the most common objection voiced is that having a mosque at “ground zero” would be an insult to the families of the people killed on September 11th. Don’t these members of the American brain trust realize that there is already a mosque just a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site? Maybe we should bulldoze that mosque as well.

In actuality what is being planned for the site in Lower Manhattan is not even going to be a mosque. What is planned is a community center. It’s supposed to include a basketball court and a culinary school. The top two stories will be a Muslim prayer space. I can see how that could have confused some of these people.

What a hot bed of terrorism this community center will be. Terrorist chefs and terrorist point guards planning their next attack. The really awful thing is that all the hatred and nastiness surrounding the protest of this project leads me to believe that those who will use the center have more to fear from us, than us from them.

But hope is not lost. There is one thing that will protect us from the fools who wish to take away the religious freedoms from the minority. Thank goodness the founders of this great nation were wise enough to write our Constitution to protect the minority from the abuses of the majority.

To all my Muslim friends I want to wish you Ramadan Mubarak and asalaam alaikum.

Steve Beikirch
Deir Yassin Remembered Scholarship

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Report on Beth Israel vigil 08-07-10

Posted on August 14th, 2010 at 7:25 pm by Henry Herskovitz

Another Vigiller Assaulted

To the assaults by Eli Avny and Abraham Seligman we now add another attack perpetrated against members of JWPF. A man wearing a yarmulke (pictured below) has, for the past few weeks, made a point of walking in front of our peaceful vigillers, in spite of the fact that we stay off the sidewalk. We stand in the lawn extension (the grassy area between sidewalk and street) to conduct our weekly protests.

This week he found Vigiller S right at the curb, and rather than walk into the street to be in front of S, he walked right into him, making physical contact. Vigiller S did not see the man approaching and only had enough time to stiffen his body; had he not he might have been knocked down, or worse, into the passing traffic. Our team photographer was immediately dispatched, producing the photo below, and this photo was turned over to the Ann Arbor Police Department; a complaint was filed. If readers know the identity of this man, please contact this writer, and/or the AAPD (Incident Report CR 10-39229).

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Photos/Assualt%20perp%2008-07-10.JPG

JWPF will not countenance physical attacks on individuals; every assault will be reported to the authorities and prosecuted. We welcome sidewalk conversations, even slightly heated ones. But those pedestrians and motorists who cross the line from verbal to physical should be advised that we will protect ourselves and our right to free speech.

JWPF Supports Ed Pinkney

Two members of JWPF joined Reverend Ed Pinkney in Benton Harbor this week, as he conducted a protest of the opening of the Harbor Shores Golf Course. Part of this Jack Nicklaus-designed course exists on what is rightly termed “stolen property” (sound familiar?). Whirlpool Corporation, with the help of some crooked City Commissioners, was allowed to “purchase” a beautiful tract of Lake Michigan shoreline property, Jean Klock Park, that had been given to the residents of Benton Harbor for use, in perpetuity, as a park. In short, public community property was privatized in order to fulfill corporate interests and friend Ed Pinkney has championed efforts to protest this corruption. A report on this protest can be found here.

Zionists Have a Friend in the People’s Tribune

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people will not be reported by the Chicago-based People’s Tribune, according to Sandy Reid, covering the Pinkney protest on Tuesday. Ms. Reid was identified by Tribune staffer Chris Mahin as a member of the Board of Directors of the newspaper.

I accepted a copy of Volume 37, No. 7 and soon noticed that none of the nine articles reported on the crimes of the Jewish State. When I mentioned this to Chris, he recommended I speak to Sandy, which I did. When I pointed out there were no articles about Palestine in this issue, she remarked that the Tribune would not be covering the topic. The reason: they will focus on national issues, not international ones unless of course it involved starvation or other such human rights issues.

“What about the starving children of Gaza?” I asked.

“Look, I don’t want to have an argument about this”

“It’s not an argument. I’m asking that the crimes against the Palestinian people, which are committed by a Jewish state with Jewish soldiers …”

With that Ms. Reid turned her back and walked away. A vivid imagination could hear the cheers of Zionists in response to her brave stance against the truth. Maybe they should change the name of their publication to the “Some People’s Tribune“. Or they could do the right thing …

This Wednesday (Aug. 18th) at St. Joseph Parish in Dexter, Michigan

A slight correction to the announcement last week: the presentation by Jon Heffelfinger and Henry Herskovitz will take place at St. Joseph Parish in Dexter (3430 Dover St.), not at St. Joseph Church, located 3 miles to the north. After hearing the description of our presentation, Father Brendan Walsh suggested the title “Working for Peace in Palestine”.

Jon will review our mission to Palestine with the Michigan Peace Team in the spring of 2005, and I will address the question of why so many tragic events occur in Palestine by examining the source and cause of conflict in the Middle East. Time: 7:00 – 8:00 pm. A very short presentation by First Presbyterian member Rod Bentz will precede my talk.

Six Vigillers
Flotillas are attacked because Jews want the land
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

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Report on Beth Israel vigil 07-31-10

Posted on August 8th, 2010 at 8:47 am by Henry Herskovitz

Hiatus Over

Just because you haven’t received a vigil report since June doesn’t mean Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends hasn’t been maintaining our vigilant vigils. Vigiller G has kept accurate records, and we thank all the extra participants who kept up the struggle for Palestine here in Ann Arbor:

July 3 – Seven Vigillers
July 10 – Seven
July 17 – Six
July 24 – Eight
July 31 – Six

And of course, our work continues, even out-of-town. This writer was fortunate to be the guest speaker at a salon held in Seattle, WA on July 8th, where he addressed twenty-four peace activists on the history, goals, and effectiveness of our vigils. Touching briefly on the claim that Zionism has such a strong religious component that to call it a secular movement is in error, we received an all-too-typical response from the one Jewish lady in attendance that she was feeling “uncomfortable” with the direction of the conversation. And when it was stated that JWPF operates the only synagogue vigil in the world, this 81-year old claimed that she knew of a peace group in Philadelphia, which, for eight years has been conducting vigils in front of a synagogue on Friday evenings.

A Google search, however, has not revealed any information on such a vigil. When “Synagogue Protest” is entered into this search engine, only JWPF’s name surfaces. So we ask readers to provide us a link to other synagogue protests, whether in Philadelphia or elsewhere.

And speaking of other activist groups, I was impressed with a group in Eugene, Oregon called “The Al Nakba Awareness Project”, headed by Jack D. and Mariah L, website www.al-nakba-history.com . These guys run a tight ship, and use their experience in the civil rights struggle to draw parallels to the racism inflicted upon Palestinians by the Jewish State.

Fishhooks

As one motorcycles across the country with his “colors” on, i.e. “Stop Israel” baseball caps, “No Jewish State” t-shirts, “Boycott Israel” bumper stickers, it’s amazing how many folk will come up and start a conversation. Equally amazing is the number of people who “get it”, who recognize Israel for the bully it is, and how the Israel lobby in this country uses its inordinate power to maintain the flow of US taxpayer dollars to the Jewish apartheid state. The “map cards” provided by Ann Arbor’s own Anne Remley are also helpful and provide well received gifts to those who strike up a conversation.

Heads Up: Speaking Engagement at St. Joseph Catholic Church

Everyone is invited to a presentation by this writer and his close friend Jon Heffelfinger, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Dexter, Michigan*, Wednesday, August 18th at 7pm. Jon will review our mission to Palestine with the Michigan Peace Team in the spring of 2005, and I will address the question of why so many tragic events occur in Palestine by examining the source and cause of conflict in the Middle East.

Short Notice: Help Support Benton Harbor this Tuesday

As Whirlpool Corporation tightens its grip over the economically-strapped community of Benton Harbor, Michigan, our friends at MECAWI have invited all to protest the opening of a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course which now sits on stolen public property. Sounding familiar to the Jewish theft of Palestinian land, the corporate bigwigs in Benton Harbor and next-door St. Joseph, Michigan, moved into Jean Klock Park – a park dedicated in perpetuity to the citizens of Benton Harbor to erect this playground for well-heeled golfers.

Benton Harbor is a majority black community, and neighboring St. Joseph is predominantly white. And years ago, when our friend Reverend Ed Pinkney completed a successful recall campaign against a corrupt city councilman, he was promptly tried by a white prosecutor in front of a white judge and an all-white jury. Found guilty (surprise!) he spent many months in prison before citizen pressure forced a tethered return to his home.

Members of JWPF will be traveling across the state on Tuesday to confront course-designer Jack Nicklaus, and to bring attention to this modern day land theft. See you there: Call David Sole from MECAWI if you need a ride 313-680-5508 and live along the I-94 corridor.

End Jewish Supremacism in Palestine
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

* 3430 Dover St. Dexter, MI 48130

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Below are all three parts of Rochester Indymedia’s video of a talk by Gilad Atzmon in a presentation by Atzmon and Rich Siegel on June 29, 2010 at the “The Flying Squirrel Community Center” in Rochester, NY. You can also watch the videos on Rochester Indymedia’s Indy TV channel on blip.tv.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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The dialogue and jazz performances by Gilad Atzmon and Rich Siegel in Rochester, NY and in Geneva, NY were a great success in spite of Zionist attempts to silence them and our organization, Deir Yassin Remembered. Both events drew “a full house” with audiences saying how much they enjoyed meeting Rich and Gilad. Typical was one gentleman who wrote, “To hear your individual stories and your political analyses, combined with world-class music, doesn’t get much better.”

Photo of Rich Siegel (right) and Gilad Atzmon in Geneva, NY

Rich Siegel (right) and Gilad Atzmon in Geneva, NY

The Rochester event was to have been held at the First Unitarian Church, but a simple protest from the local rabbi caused the church to roll over and cancel the event, with no compensation, a mere five days before its scheduled time on June 29th. Fortunately, Rochester Against War, offered us even better space at “The Flying Squirrel Community Center,” complete with audio hook ups. We are indebted to Brian Lenzo and Doug Noble for their support.

The Geneva event was a $100-head fundraiser at Billsboro Winery overlooking beautiful Seneca Lake. In spite of pressure on the winery to not host us and on local people to shun the event, we filled the space and raised $4,800. This is (almost) enough for two additional DYR Scholarships for young people wishing to study in Palestine. (One man drove over 300 miles from Boston just to hear Gilad.)

Both Gilad and Rich addressed the audience on their personal experiences of overcoming political Zionism. Gilad’s grandfather was a commander in the Irgun, the Jewish terrorist gang that committed the massacre at Deir Yassin. Rich was the president of a Zionist youth group as a teenager.

Both Gilad and Rich share my belief that within the borders controlled today by Israel (that is, all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River) there already exists a single state. It has one electrical grid, one road system, one monetary authority, one postal authority, one water system, etc. etc. The problem is that over half the population within this existing state or those people that are non-Jews, have lesser rights or none at all.

Zionists refuse to recognize this simple fact, because they continue to dream of a state where Jews are in a majority and have superior rights to non-Jews. That dream is based, to a large extent, on “chosenness” or superiority to non-Jews or goyim, a more derisive term. And that obsession has led to the apartheid state that Israel/Palestine now is and to the racist transfers and ethnic cleansing plans that it currently employs.

Here are my opening remarks to give you a better idea of what Deir Yassin Remembered is and why were so proud to have hosted Rich Siegel and Gilad Atzmon. Hopefully we shall see them return next year, perhaps as the NTFADA Ensemble.

The Times, They Are Indeed Changing
(opening remarks by Daniel McGowan for Gilad Atzmon DYR Fundraiser)

A month ago the whole world saw Jewish Power attack unarmed humanitarian activists in international waters with no existential threat to Israel. It was another clear demonstration of the criminal side of political Zionism, meaning the quest to build a Jewish state in Palestine, ignoring the fact that over half the population is not Jewish. It was a demonstration of the colonialism, the discrimination, the collective punishment, the racism, the siege and starvation techniques, the ghetto-ization of the Palestinians, namely the indigenous population.

It was also pivotal event. First, Gaza became recognized as the obscene ghetto Israel created. Second, for the first time, The Holocaust was not used as the shield to justify naked Israeli aggression. Third, the myth of the United States as an “honest broker” was rendered inane. Our government denied the facts, failed to call for an international inquiry, ignored our own citizens’ participation, passed resolutions condemning the victims, and turned against our NATO ally Turkey whose citizens were killed and wounded.

General David Petraeus said that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is endangering the lives of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senator Schumer, Howard Berman, and other Israel-Firsters couldn’t care less. When Petraeus fainted last week at a Senate hearing, some of them viewed it as divine punishment.

Deir Yassin Remembered is a not-for-profit organization of Jews and non-Jews working to build a truth and reconciliation center at Deir Yassin, site of a massacre on April 9, 1948 of over 100 Arab men, women, and children by Jewish terrorists of the Irgun and Stern Gang. The massacre was a pivotal moment in Palestinian history, one known to virtually every Palestinian and a historical fact that has been deliberately flushed down the memory hole by political Zionists and those who tell only the Jewish narrative of the conquest of historical Palestine. (By the way Gilad’s father, a devout Zionist, was a member of the Irgun.)

Deir Yassin Remembered was founded in 1995 at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Over the years The Colleges hosted several of its Board members, including Sahar Ghosheh, Mubarak Awad, Edward Said, and Hanan Ashrawi, and The Colleges were to have been the repository for the DYR Archives. Today, the only memorial to the dispossession of the Palestinian people, the only one in the United States, is located on the lake frontage of Houghton House, which is the Colleges’ art department.

As part of our mission the Deir Yassin Remembered Scholarship Fund is designed to help young people receive college education in Palestine/Israel under the motto of “Peace Through Education.” Last year we gave seven scholarships. Tonight’s fundraiser, donated by Gilad Atzmon and Rich Siegel and by contributions from DYR members from all over the world will allow us to give an additional two scholarships this year.

Rich Siegel is a free-lance pianist/vocalist/songwriter/bandleader. He has appeared as a piano-vocal soloist in various venues including the Carlyle, the Waldorf Astoria, the NY Inter-Continental, Tavern on the Green, 21 Club in New York; Nova Park Elysees and Maxim’s de Paris in France, Bowden Square Club in the Hamptons, Upstairs in Montreal, Le Jazze in Quebec, Club Baron Shimaguchi in Japan, and “Bleu Marine’ in Abidjan, West Africa.

You may have seen him in the national ad for Steinway Pianos or accompanying pop stars like Laura Branigan or various other jazz and cabaret artists in NY scene.

Before becoming a pro-Palestinian activist and a Board member of DYR, Rich was a former teenage president of a Zionist youth group.

Gilad Atzmon is a world renowned jazz musician, author and blogger. He was born in Israel and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, where he learned to play saxophone and clarinet.

But Gilad is not just an outstanding musician. He is an unrestrained political activist who serves music with raw political passion and a message. His views, born from experience can be unsettling – especially to an American audience taught to avoid all criticism of Israel for fear of being destroyed with the tar brush of anti-Semitism.

Gilad’s main instrument is the alto saxophone. His jazz style is bebop/hard bop, veering at times into free jazz. The London Times calls him, “the hardest-gigging man in British jazz … the music here is subtle, ambiguous, often beautiful  … a saxophonist playing deep from the heart.”

But if his eclectically inclusive music prompts rave reports, his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his intensely anti-Zionist views have provoked outrage, not least among some other anti-Zionists, and he has been condemned as an anti-Semite and even a Holocaust denier.

Ask him about such claims and he sounds cheerfully, indeed pugilistically, unrepentant. He refutes accusations of Holocaust denial, arguing that it should be treated as historical fact rather than as “religious myth.” So far as being labeled in some quarters as a “self-hating Jew,” he responds: “Self-hating Jew is almost correct. I would say a proud self-hating Jew,” and continues, unabashed, “I would remind you that great thoughts have been contributed by Jews who were self-hating – Christ, or Marx, or Spinoza… whenever you come across a mega-Jewish thinker, there’s always this element of anger against oneself.

Gilad has earned many jazz awards including the “Best Jazz Album of 2002″ (BBC Jazz Award) and is regarded as one of the greatest saxophonists of this generation.

In 1982 he completed obligatory military service during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, where his experiences brought about a major change in his thinking. He currently lives in exile in Great Britain and regards himself as a Hebrew-speaking Palestinian.

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